[PPT] - Agro-Food Systems and Agroecology Chapter 11 What we will cover PowerPoint Presentation

SLIDE 1

Agro-Food Systems and Agroecology

Chapter 11

SLIDE 2

What we will cover

Human-environment interactions Agro-food system evolution How the system is trying to provide

for global demand

How the system is affecting social and

ecological interactions

Land use and land cover changes The growing changes from globalization

and food trade

Feedback loops The future of the agro-food system

SLIDE 3

Humans have had a 1/3

impact on the biosphere

Agriculture is only a small

percentage of Gross World Product

If you include all processing,

transportation and retail= 8 percent

NPP= net primary production

Growth of vegetation which

depends on location, soil quality, elevation, precipitation, temperature, as well as other factors

Rural populations are most

common at medium NPP areas- less completion but enough food

GDP per capita generally

tends to be positively correlated with NPP

SLIDE 4

Income tends to increase with distance

from the equator

Human distribution can be mapped using

4 parameters

Altitude, nearness to rivers and coasts,

temperature and precipitation

Anthromes a type of biome that reflects the

changes humans have made

80% of all people live in densely

populated urban and rural villages

1 in 4 people live in agricultural villages Social Ecological systems

An integrated human- environment

system with feedback and interdependence

Used to explore sustainable pathways

based on the identified local varieties and contingencies

SLIDE 5

SLIDE 6

Agro food systems

In an urban setting, the

natural environment is usually restricted to natural parks and rural areas.

Intensive agriculture in a

few highly productive areas

The rest of the world relies on

the natural world right around them for sustenance, survival, and enjoyment

Figure 11.4

This shows how agricultural

practices have evolved over time but also how each stage has gained a niche in the overall agricultural system

SLIDE 7

There are still a couple hundred

thousand hunter gathers that exists in remote areas of the world.

Because they are vulnerable to

external shocks they will diversify

A subset of the nomads are

commercial grazing operations.

Where land was scare- large,

intensified manufacturing plants process dense populations of animals for supermarket consumption.

Shifting cultivation is done by

around 500 million people but rising population density and food demand have pushed more of these farmers into permanent agriculture and cash crops

SLIDE 8

For intermediate, modern, and

mechanized farming there are two main categories:

Wet rice culture and mixed farming Wet-rice relies on lots of water (usually from

natural floods) and labor vs lots of soil and less labor or livestock.

However in many cases much of the rice

grown is consumed by the household and so it is technically considered subsistence farming

SLIDE 9

The modern methods of mixed farming

Started in the early middle ages

Reduction of the fallow period, Elimination of common rights, Greater need for livestock, Need for more intensive use of inputs Shift from cereals to high value crops.

Modern agriculture has become

dependent on science, manufacturing, and technology

Globalization has only increased these

factors and has forced farmers to comply with standards

SLIDE 10

Food needs and demands

The consumption need is determined by the

amount of people and their nutritional requirements.

The number of food units as well as amount of

income spent on food can track the food needs

Engel’s Law The proportion of staple foods consumed

decreases with rising income but the consumption of luxury foods increases with increasing income

Liebig's law- the weakest link

For the food system

A population is not limited by the total resources in

the system but rather by the availability of those resources during the time of highest scarcity

SLIDE 11

Another way to look at the

system is at biophysical resource potential- or how food can be supplied

Based on soils, temperature,

and precipitation- variable can be made to see the potential yields of crops in certain places.

Figure 11.5 shows the

potential yield of some crops but the potential doesn't equal actual and

The difference is called the

yield gap.

A different agro-economic

method is to define efficiency of crops as the difference between the actual yield and the growth defining variables

SLIDE 12

How the system supplies more food

Much of the increase in food production comes

from yield improvements and intensification

But will it take a increasingly large toll on the

environment?

In order to track this the inherent fertility of soils is

looked at

This is to preserve the ability of a soil to grow

plants as it was before humans interacted with it

To do this the nutrient flow and pollutants must

both be net neutral flows

Figure 11.7 shows the flows

SLIDE 13

The effects of over- intensification

land degradation in densely populated

areas

Water use is at unsustainable levels Chemical inputs are disrupting phosphorus

and nitrogen cycles leading to eutrophication

Methane and carbon dioxide emissions

from meat production mean climate changes

This can be beneficial for some but

generally causes severe consequences such as droughts or extreme rainfall

SLIDE 14

Cases

Nomads in Mongolia

Rural farmers were growing a lot of facai grass The mass harvesting of the grass quickly

desertified a great portion of the landscape that one was grassland.

This led to the farmers pushing rural herders off

their land by force and also created dust storms that affected surrounding areas

SLIDE 15

Rural France

Farms in France have decreased over the last 40 years and is

expected to decrease further in the future

The global competition for produce have pushed prices so low

that the costs outweigh the returns

Many farmers are being forced to look for other opportunities of

work in order to stay afloat

Those farms that remain have turned into mega-operations with

razor thin margins

In order to save the rural farmers many suggest to push trends

that:

Rely on food ideals centered on local quality and flavor,

agritourism, or allowing farmers to be the main managers of the landscape and surrounding nature

However, many say it is doubtful that these trends will arise and

with steep global competition, the question of whether to actually save rural France comes into question

SLIDE 16

Land use changes

Land change occurs in

low-income areas places that are rapidly urbanizing and

industrializing

Deforestation is one of the most common

examples and has been occurring around the world at different areas in different stages

Europe, Northern India, and China in the 18th

century,

North America and Russia in the 19th century, South America and south east Asia in the 20th

century

Africa for the 21st century

SLIDE 17

Land use/ land cover transitions

Are reversible change processes with many economic,

ecological, and social feedbacks

Different areas of the world are in different stages of land

use/cover transitions

There are many direct and indirect causes behind what

makes land use/cover transitions

5 fundamental underlying causes

Resource scarcity and a pressure on production of resources Changing opportunities by the markets Outside policy intervention Loss of adaptive capacity and increased vulnerability Changes in social organization in resource access and

attitudes

Most important is the behavioral responses to perceived

pportunities and constraints of markets and policies

Many issues arise because top down government strategies

don’t take local biogeography into account

SLIDE 18

Modelling Land use/cover changes and

transitions

Usually done at a top down aggregate level for

land categories over time

But because these changes and transitions are

so complex down to a local level, it is necessary to have a bottom up approach

Unit of production= family farms

Microclimates, seasonal variations, soil erosion

Landscape= communities

Altitude, topography, soil and water basins

Region=social, economic, cultural, and

biophysical aspects of communities

Colonization, migration, major

infrastructure, world food prices, trade

pportunities, climate parameters,

and crop potentials

SLIDE 19

CLUE (Conversion of Land Use and its

Effects)

Input the suitability and food availability Urban expansion, technology availability,

management level, and values

Translate demand into actual land use

changes

Food security and technological adaptation Explores how to achieve sustainable food for

all

SLIDE 20

Example of CLUE model at the local scale in the Philippines-

See Figure 11.9

The San Mariano municipality 48,500 hectares and 20 villages near a large protected area Logging deforested a big part of the area Logging Moratorium But even with the change, agricultural trends using CLUE have

shown to be at unsustainable levels and is still about one-third that of the previous rate

So in order to help design policies to stop the deforestation, the

model must show the forces action on the situation at different scales of local, regional, and global in an integrated way

SLIDE 21

Made a transition into a global

agro- food system

Intensified agriculture Efficient logistics High-value food with low prices A huge diversity in food options

One-third of the world still lives in

an economy dependent on subsistence farming and herding

Generally these people groups

have high pressure from globalization, low education, and have little access to capital

Rigid social hierarchies Mythical worldviews about the

food production and its value as a cultural and traditional resource as well as nutrition

SLIDE 22

These types of societies are called social

ecological systems (SES)

Regional biogeography plays a big role in the

human culture and institutions

Some activities are not monetized Local resources are utilized as common pool

resources with both competitive and cooperative arrangements

Social stratification is high and surplus generally

goes to the elites, local landlords, or government

People are vulnerable for natural and human

disturbances to the system

For SES systems sustainable development means

tackling the challenges associated with

verpopulation and local resource
verexploitation

Trade and outward migration can both help and

cause new issues

SLIDE 23

For the advanced industrial economies, their

agricultural products are only 3-4 % of the agri-population but make up two-thirds of the market value for outputs

There is nearly no connection to the natural

ecosystem the further industrialized and intensified the bulk of operations have become

Competition forces the need for higher yields of

high value crops as well as animal products

Concerns about the environment and

shrinking margins affect all the actors in the is area

SLIDE 24

In between the extremes

Many try to survive by combining

subsistence farming, cash cropping, and work in urban centers

Farmland especially in Africa is being

purchased for large cash crop plantations

Many people in this area simply want a

steady income opportunity to have basic amenities of modern life

SLIDE 25

The food trade has

evolved over time to reduce vulnerability

It started out as

conquest and colonization for novel products

But now has

evolved into food trade

Figure 11.10

Cereal production

has nearly tripled since 1960 and meat production has increased fourfold

SLIDE 26

Food production is the upstream

portion of the global food supply chain

Larger value added comes

downstream

80% of this value added is in processing

and retailing and 20% comes from manufacturing of seeds, agrochemicals, and biotech

Around a dozen large global companies

control about one-third of all global transactions for the 80% processing/retailing

Nestle and Walmart are the largest of these

About 10 large companies control about

90% of the seed, agrochem, and biotech market

Monsanto, Bayer, and Syngenta are part of

this

SLIDE 27

Globalization Both a blessing and a curse

Competition and large scale farms create food

price instabilities

Hunger and undernourishment still exists for about

ne billion people but there may be enough

food production to serve 9 billion or more people

This is because many people cannot afford the food

r have no reliable access to it

Food aid also plays a role in aggravating the

situations by making the people dependent on foreign aid to survive with no initiatives or investments to rectify the situations they are in

There is still room to grow on the supply side as

global demand grows but the argument of sustainability with increasing intensity and innovations may prove that the system may become more vulnerable over time

SLIDE 28

Godfray et. al. article

The authors argue that the

challenge that now faces the world is :

To match rapidly changing

demand to supply while being sustainable in both social and ecological ways as well as ensure that the poorest are no longer left hungry

They state that radical changes ae

needed to meet this challenge

Some of the solutions they propose

are:

To help close the yield gap by increasing secure land rights and having investments from large farming operations that take locals welfare into consideration

Increase production limits and

reducing wastes

Change diets by including less meat

but not completely removing it but switching some operations to better forms such as aquaculture

SLIDE 29

There are a few causal feedback

loops that affect the global agro- food system

Figure 11.11

Production loop Positive feedback loop- investment

to produce, return from the investment, reinvestment, and then increasing capacity to produce

Price Competition loop Competition drives down price

which increases demand until profit margins are so low, new markets are looked for.

Subsidiary loop is the marketing and

upgrading loop where demand is driven up by processing and advertising

Upscaling and Innovation loop Product cost declines as labor and

capital productivity increase

However these three loops block

market incentives to deal with prices and losses that contribute to hunger

SLIDE 30

Two more feedback loops

Import loop

Increased capacity to deliver pushes down prices and pushes

up demand

Regulation loop

Higher incomes increase demand for more stringent

environmental, health, safety, and animal welfare standards which then increases price

For the consumers, it is a virtuous cycle of more food at

decreasing prices

For the farmers, it is a vicious cycle of continuous income

erosion with increasing dependence

This style of agro-business provides possible dangers to

long-term environmental health

High food surpluses Food shortages due to natural disasters, protectionism, and

rapidly rising demand

Externalization of consequences

Environmental and social damage because of push for

production

Poor farmers pushed out by global competition

Environmental regulations

Trade disputes over regulations that are not met by some and

is enforced upon others- unfair playing field

SLIDE 31

Constraints of the global agro-food system

Humans need a minimum amount of food for

physical survival

The resource base is finite in its ability to supply and

adapt

There is a balancing act between expectations

and tendencies

The system has evolved with a free market

worldview

It should lead to improvements with manage side

effects

But in reality, exploitation of the system is rampant

The main questions of the future of the system are:

Will major disruptions always happen when food

prices become volatile?

Is technology the solution? Will overexploitation defeat yield improvements Can community based agriculture help food

security?

Do we need a new ethic to stop world hunger?

SLIDE 32

The trends for what

will happen in the future are already visible in today’s world

Table 11.3 tries to

show the different worldviews for different questions and attempts to show the arguments against the modernist worldview in four different ways

SLIDE 33

Summary

Food is essential The global agro-food system is diverse, complex, and

interconnected

Agro- food systems have evolved over time and are defined by

social-ecological systems

World food production has increased at a rapid rate but not

without side effects

Land use and Land cover changes are driven by opportunities

for the poor and conversion for infrastructure

A few causal feedback loops drive the global food system;

namely competition, regulations, innovation, and production

It is important to understand all of the worldviews, ideals, major

actors, and interdependencies of the agro-food system in order to look for a transition to a sustainable food system

SLIDE 34

Discussion Questions

Does the global food system need to focus

n increasing production or does it need to

focus more on the equitable distribution of food to all people or both?

If the answer is increasing production, how

should that happen, taking into consideration sustainability (not just environmental issues)

If the answer is to focus on equitable

distribution, can this be done while the current system is in place, or does it need to change?

If both, how can we find the balance

between increasing production and making sure everyone can have proper food security?

SLIDE 35

Which feedback loop(s) ( production,

competition, innovation, import, and regulation) is/are the best intervention points for improving the system?

With increasing globalization, should rural

farmers be continuing to farm in hopes the system will favor local producers or should they turn to other livelihoods and leave farming to larger farms?